oceti wakan sacred fireplace

april 30, 2019

Donations for Life Skills for the Young LakotaEmail Oceti Wakan Wed 5/1/2019 1:39 AM
Hi Sabine, we are getting good TV and article this week.
Working hard on getting grant in tomorrow but funds are low but we are doing our best.
Thank you for this. Every bit really helps at this point.
Thank you so much!!! Much love, Cindy

april 18, 2019

This is an edited article in Lakota Country Times this week that we did

Many of our children in South Dakota are living in the unhealthiest and deadliest counties in the US.
A study at the University of Wisconsin Health Institute in 2015 revealed the 25 healthiest and the
25 deadliest counties in our country. What they found was that five out of the top six counties with the
highest mortality rate were within the Lakota/ Dakota reservations.( time.com/ 3757522/ deadliest-counties/ )

In response to these shocking statistics, I’m sure we all agree we must figure out what we need to do to
turn this around in the shortest amount of time.
Oceti Wakan’s answer is for our schools to have a daily health class that not only addresses the life skills
one needs to have a healthy physical body but,
just as importantly, the skills one needs to have healthy emotional, spiritual and mental bodies as well,
using the wisdom of the medicine wheel, a whole-body, healing and well-balanced approach to health.

Our children and youth are suffering because of the cycle of trauma and addiction we are dealing with
now in Lakota Country. Our curriculum is designed to break the cycle of addiction and to help our children
to choose life, instead of wanting to end their lives.
Addressing this about six years ago, Peter Catches, one of the founders of Oceti Wakan, wanted to find
answers to how we can end this devastating cycle and turn our children around. We think we have a solution.

Oceti Wakan proceeded by writing a grant to ANA (Administration for Native Americans) to develop a seven-year
whole body approach curriculum with 2 to 8 grades in mind. We named our curriculum “Life Skills for the Young Lakota.”
We also published another version called “Life Skills for the Young Native American,” because many of our relatives in
this region have similar cultures and situations.

Our goal was to gradually, year-by-year, help our children develop within themselves the life skills, tools,
and habits necessary to make the healthy choices necessary to live their best lives.
We used the ancient medicine wheel approach that embodies all science and granular life education.
Since each of our four bodies, the physical, emotional, spiritual and mental needs to be nourished, educated,
developed and protected equally, in order to experience wholeness and to have the life each human being deserves.
We have found that the trauma our children and teens experience in many of their households and communities,
as well as intergenerational trauma they may inherit, often get stuck in their minds and bodies.

This needs to be addressed and healed, the earlier the better.
Each lesson in our life skills curriculum starts with a few minutes of a trauma healing activity.
Most of our children are lost and don’t know who they are and where they fit in today’s world.
We have collected close to 300 ancestors’ stories so far and are matching them with our lessons.
By the end of seven years, we believe our children will understand the noble culture they come from,
have a strong Lakota identity, understand the values and teachings their people lived by that create health
and well-being in a person, and see that they are just as applicable to them today. We have found that the
wisdom of these stories can be profound.

Our Wellness Program also includes a “Parent’s Handbook.”
A child does better if their parents are involved which allows the adults in the household to reinforce
what is learned at school, and often to learn new life skills and parenting skills for themselves.
Many of our children’s parents came from a cycle of addiction in their homes and grew up without having the
opportunity to learn them. Also, many children were removed from their parents and put in Boarding Schools;
Their parents never had the opportunity to parent.
We invite you to please visit our website and explore the Wellness Program solution at www.ocetiwakan.org.
Feel free to contact Cindy Catches, Director of Oceti Wakan, to learn more or set up a meeting or presentation.

march 25, 2019

Donations for Life Skills for the Young Lakota
Email Oceti Wakan Mon 3/25/2019 4:49 PM
Oh warrior of light, know how much your efforts, your sacrifices for our children are so appreciated.
May you be blessed for your efforts.
Much love, Cindy

This is an edited article in Lakota Country Times this week that we did

Many of our children in South Dakota are living in the unhealthiest and deadliest counties in the US.
A study at the University of Wisconsin Health Institute in 2015 revealed the 25 healthiest and the
25 deadliest counties in our country. What they found was that five out of the top six counties with the
highest mortality rate were within the Lakota/ Dakota reservations.
( time.com/ 3757522/ deadliest-counties/)

In response to these shocking statistics, I’m sure we all agree we must figure out what we need to do to
turn this around in the shortest amount of time. Oceti Wakan’s answer is for our schools to have a daily
health class that not only addresses the life skills one needs to have a healthy physical body but,
just as importantly, the skills one needs to have healthy emotional, spiritual and mental bodies as well,
using the wisdom of the medicine wheel, a whole-body, healing and well-balanced approach to health.

Our children and youth are suffering because of the cycle of trauma and addiction we are dealing with
now in Lakota Country. Our curriculum is designed to break the cycle of addiction and to help our children
to choose life, instead of wanting to end their lives.
Addressing this about six years ago, Peter Catches, one of the founders of Oceti Wakan, wanted to find
answers to how we can end this devastating cycle and turn our children around. We think we have a solution.

Oceti Wakan proceeded by writing a grant to ANA (Administration for Native Americans) to develop a seven-year
whole body approach curriculum with 2 to 8 grades in mind. We named our curriculum “Life Skills for the Young Lakota.”
We also published another version called “Life Skills for the Young Native American,” because many of our relatives in
this region have similar cultures and situations.

march 25, 2019

About the Situation Lakota Dakot Reservations 2015
written by Chris Wilson, March 25, 2015link for the report

feb. 28, 2019

Donations for Life Skills for the Young Lakota
Email Oceti Wakan Thu 2/28/2019 10:37 PM
Dear Sabine,
Please tell your dear ones how much their sacrifice and efforts mean so very much to the children here.
Each bit helps us in our efforts.
I’ll get something out to you right away and know how much all of your efforts mean so very much.
Warmest love, Cindy

feb. 2, 2019

Donations for General SupportEmail Oceti Wakan Sat 2/2/2019 5:46 PMThis is great, thank you so much!
Sabine, our dear woman,
step by step we will bring it to a reality with the generosity and effort and sacrifice
that you make for the people here.
Bless you, dear woman and words can’t express how much this helps right now.
Much blessings to you and your loved ones.
Cindy and the people of the Oceti Wakan

dec. 8, 2018

Donation for Christmas Project for Children
Email Oceti Wakan Sat 12/8/2018 7:31 PM
Awesome! Wopila!!!
You have brought light into so many young people eyes and hearts.
Please give our heart felt appreciation to all those who have sacrificed for these children.
It means the world to them.
With much love and gratitude in our hearts,
Cindy Catches and the staff of Oceti Wakan
With much gratitude for your radiant heart. Wopila!

nov. 20, 2018

nov. 16, 2018

New printing of Pete Catches‘ book of Sacred Fireplace.
A wonderful Christmas for those who would know the value of this book.
Visit www.ocetiwakan.org to order.

sept. 18, 2018

Email Oceti Wakan Tue 9/18/2018 4:08 PM
Oh, dear Sabine and Medicine. You are so good.
Wopila to you and the friends who are helping us to grow.
Checkout our website as we have updated it.
It helps us so very much.
Sending love and blessings to you both, Cindy

sept. 7, 2018

life skills
Our newly developed curriculum, Life Skills for the Young Lakota and Life Skills
for the Young Native American, is designed for students in 2nd grade through 8th,
but it is useful for other ages including high school.
We focus on guiding our children and youth in making healthy choices and developing
life skills to assist them in living their best lives and contributing to the wellness of their communities.
The workbooks are centered on the concept of mitakuye oyasin (we are all related) –
in our relationships with each other, our Creator, Mother Earth and all of creation.

Our program is based on a whole body/medicine wheel approach.
Students are asked to see themselves as having four bodies: physical, emotional, spiritual and mental.
As we go around the medicine wheel, the lessons will address subjects that relate to each body.
In some cases, such as setting boundaries, the topic will be addressed in all four bodies consecutively.
For adolescent ages, we address addiction, enabling, codependence, depression, suicide,
and other heavy but important subjects (after building up to them).

Developing more funds for this project will advance the work of training teachers, making assessments,
giving presentations at conferences and meetings across the US, getting the curriculum out to other tribes,
and aiding in the development of customized versions for them, among other functions.
We are eager to put this work that took thousands of hours to develop during the last three years into the
hands of our beloved at-risk Native children and youth.

august 31, 2018

Just Released: Two new ‚Life Skills Workbooks‘! The best yet!

july 30, 2018

Email Oceti Wakan Mon 7/30/2018 3:56 PM
Wopila for your generous contribution
Dear Sabine and Medicine Turtle,
Thank you so sincerely for all that you both do to help us do the work we are striving so hard to do.
In September we will be attending and having a booth at a Native Wellness Conference in Minn which people from all tribes will be there.
We hope to get our curriculum to other Nations. Your efforts make so much possible.
Love you both. Cindy

june 18, 2018

Email Oceti Wakan Mon 6/18/2018 5:09 PM
Good morning Sabine and Medicine,
Felt so good to wake up this morning with this generous donation.
We will do everything in us, as Peter did with the Sundance,
to give Oceti Wakan the life it needs that by the time I pass it will be manifested
in all the ways our founders saw it … helping the people.
You both are a big part of that.
Wopila dear friends.
Much love to both of you and so much appreciation.
Love, Cindy

june 14, 2018

Peter V. Catches
The sound of a spirit calling, talking in sacred union,
I find myself as mysterious as the words that I chant,
The chant more infinite than its beginning . . .
The world around me is swept away, all its thoughts,
All its binding connections, all its binding overwhelming
chaos, in that shadowing echo, I found myself . . .
The silence of hatred ending, falling in an eternal canyon,
I laugh in overjoyed happiness in the melody of the sacred
chant, knowing the realization that love is beginning . . .
Perceive
my
life
in that glow,
Who once frantically sought, who once frantically
wandered, who once frantically sobbed in the night,
will never again, for I have found myself . . .
There beneath the shade of the sacred Tree.
I found in the eternity of the desert, to live in tranquil
Unity as equal in the spirit . . .
Zintkala Oyate

june 11, 2018

It is with a sad heart to share with you that Peter Vitus Catches (Zintkala Oyate) took his flight
to the Land of the Winds at 7:40 pm on June 8, 2018, at his home on Tobacco Road,
Calico Community, outside of Pine Ridge, SD, at the place of his birth, June 16th, 1955.

Zintkala Oyate was beloved by people all over the world for all that he did to preserve the
Lakota culture and language during his lifetime.
He put on and conducted the Spotted Eagle Sundance for forty-four consecutive years,
as well as conducting Sundances at Cheyanne River Reservation,
Rosebud Reservation, Standing Rock Reservation and Lower Sioux Reservation —
totaling over 50 Sundances.
He authored six Lakota Language books and CDs.
He created a CD for young people to understand the timeless symbolism of the
Seven Sacred Rites given to the Lakota.
He co-authored a book with his father ‘Sacred Fireplace’ and authored ‘Realities Within.’
Peter was the co-founder of Oceti Wakan (Sacred Fireplace) a non-profit organization with his father.
He developed a Wellness Center for young people and helped develop a seven-year
(2nd to 8th grade)
Wellness Program based on Lakota culture to give life skills and a strong Lakota identity
to young people so
that they could make healthy choices to have the life that was intended
as wakanjeya (sacred beings).

As a 38th generation medicine man, Peter was the Keeper of the Spotted Eagle ways and medicine.
He touched hundreds of lives with healing and growth in their spiritual journey.

april 4, 2018

Oceti Wakan
Oh my goodness!!! Please your dear heart!
Please, please tell the person how much this helps us and how much we needed it!
Thank you and yes, I will write up something for you. Wopila!

On Rosebud reservation,
Todd County Schools have decided after all their middle school student started on Book 4 this year
that they wanted all the kids K-8 to take the curriculum.
So all the kids will be starting it next year as we understand it.
We have been so busy producing it that we haven’t spent enough time getting it out to the schools.
We are almost done with 7th grade, Book 6 and will be finished with 8th grade, Book 7 by the end of September.

We have collected over 230 traditional Lakota stories which we have matched with our lessons.

We are working on developing mapping and questions and answers to these old stories and
matching them with the lessons right now.
That was a huge job.
love cindy and peterhttp://www.ocetiwakan.org/

march 30, 2018

Help Lakota Children lead a BETTER LIFENo one has ever become poor by giving

WOOHITAKA MANI YO (WALK FORWARD WITH BRAVERY)We are developing seven years of curriculum (2nd grade to 8th grade) that will be known as Lifeskills for the
Young Lakota for our children in order to help them develop the life skills necessary
to have happy and successful lives.
We will use a cultural approach that includes that of a medicine wheel to help them
develop a healthy self identity.

On Mondays our lessons will be on the tools to develop a healthy physical body;
Tuesdays our focus will be to develop the tools to have a healthy emotional body from tools
to heal the trauma that is in their daily lives to ways to develop and maintain healthy relationships;
Wednesday our focus will be the spiritual body by teaching about virtues and character traits
and the important of service; and
Thursdays our focus will be learning the tools to develop the brain and the mental body.

Each week the child will go around the medicine wheel in their lessons that include corresponding
activities in a workbook they will each eventually take home.
Oceti Wakan has gotten a three year grant to do much of this work.
It has partnered with a couple of our schools to test these curriculums as we develop them.
Developing more funds to put into this project will advance the work faster as well as aid in the
development of versions for other tribes.

LAKOTA LANGUAGE LEARNING STATIONS
Oceti Wakan’s goal was to break the existing barrier of less than 2% of our young people understanding or speaking the Lakota language.
We have machines at stations in the back of classrooms where children go and put on headphones and learn to speak Lakota words and phrases each week.
At Porcupine School, they have used our program for the last four years.

LEARNING PREVENTION USING LAKOTA VALUES
A set of primary and secondary prevention workbooks that are using a culturally-based program for the prevention of alcohol and drug abuse.
Over 80% of our schools have used this curriculum prior to ‘No Child Left Behind’ came into our school system and programs like this were dropped.
Now, with our children in such trouble, schools are interested in ordering this program again.

feb. 26, 2018

Email Oceti Wakan Mon 2/26/2018 3:53 PM
Our dear Sabine,
You are really amazing. We just got back from Sioux Falls and it is good to be home.
We have made that trip twice in the last three weeks and twice Peter ended up in the hospital for a few days each.
But he is healing and at home.
Thank goodness me and my team can continue writing our lessons with the great help of the spirit world from where ever we are here.
We are about half way done with Book 6 (7th grade) and it has been so guided so far.
I’m excited by this project.
We got news last week that the Rosebud School Board approved our project for their whole district which is such an answer to our prayers.
I’m not sure what that looks like but I am still in much gratitude.
We can’t express how much your support means to us as the last few grants we did not get and we are doing the Teacher’s Manuals
and the collection of traditional Lakota stories are not funded so this means a great deal.
Wopila dear friends.
My love to you and Medicine and the work that you are doing to help the people here.
Your contribution of the donation is greatly appreciated.
Much love Cindy and Peter

dec. 31, 2017

dec. 3, 2017

Email Oceti Wakan Sat 12/2/2017 5:01 PMDonation for Christmas
Thank you so very much for all that you and Medicine do and may you be blessed in all your efforts.
May your sacrifice come back many times to you.
We honor the work you both do so much as it helps us to do the work that we do.
We so look forward to seeing you when you are here.
Safe journey.

nov. 13, 2017

Email Oceti Wakan Mon 11/13/2017 1:36 AM
donation for the young lakota
Thank you for your support! You guys are amazing. Wopila.

News nov. 8, 2017

Email Oceti Wakan Wed, Nov 8, 2017 at 7:29 AM
I’m so glad you guys are amazing. Here are a picture of the workbooks we have developed so far for Life Skills for the Young Lakota and the five we did for Life Skills for the Young Native American. We are working hard on a Parents Handbook and workbooks for 7th and 8th grades along with us continuing our gathering of old Lakota tradionsl stories that was part of their oral history. We have collected and created questions like what virtues does this teach. We’ve collect over 150. Also we are working on the Teacher manuals.

Also Todd County Middle School is starting each day out with it for all their students.
Another elementary school is trying to get it for their students.

News oct. 28, 2017

News sept. 28, 2017

Email Oceti Wakan Thu 9/28/2017 4:03 PM

Our dear Sabine and Medicine,
It is so sweet to hear from you. Been so very busy.
We just got back from going to Pierre for the South Dakota Indian Education Summit where they asked us to give a two hour presentation on our curriculum. It went really well but so much work preparing the powerpoint presentation and everything.
I have wonderful news that two schools on Rosebud Reservation has already ordered our books for their children which represent over 600 kids who will be getting life skills every day.
I’m so excited and one other school there wants it for their school also but asked me to give a presentation to the teachers when we deliver the books next week to Rosebud.
We are working so very hard getting the Teacher’s Manuals ready as 24 of one school and 20 of another school. Also so much interest from other schools at the summit.

We have to tell you that your donation was a gift from heaven as we needed it so much to accomplish what we needed to as the Teacher’s Manuals were not in our grant for the curriculum.
We have also developed great posters for the kids for each workbook.
I’m going to send you some pictures that you might want to share.
Not only did we do ‚Life Skills for the Young Lakota‘ but we took all the Lakota out and made another book called ‚Life Skills for the Young Native American‘. The pictures below will show you the work as we haven’t even had time to put it on our website yet. I will also send a sample of the poster.
Love you guys so much and really can’t begin to tell you that your contributions has helped make this possible.
It takes all of us doing what we can to make this a better world. I love you guys, Cindy and Peter

News sept. 12, 2017

How wonderful your work is.
I can’t tell you how much this helps us as we were out of money to continue on the Teacher’s Manuals and
they really want them and this will help so much!
We’ve developed them for Book 3 and Book 4 and most of Book 5 but they want them for Book 1 and 2 and next year for Book 7 and 8.
So much work and we don’t have these costs in our grant.
The grant was only for the development of the workbooks 1 to 7 which is so much work.
But we are so excited with it.
The middle schools at Rosebud Reservation is getting Book 4 for all their students in middle school.
Thank you so much! Cindy and Peter

August 2016, graduation and teaching of the lakota language

June 15, 2016 das 1. Klasssenzimmer ist fast fertig

Email Oceti Wakan Wednesday, June 15, 2016 3:56 PM

Betreff: Thank you so much for all that you both do!
We want to thank you so very much for your generous contribution. This helps us so much.
With sundance coming up and our Wellness Center soon to open up with our Jr.
Youth prevention classes, this is sooooo helpful.
We pray that your trip is or has gone really well for everyone!
May you both have many blessings and protection for all that you are striving to do.